My Soundcoud posts will get tens— sometimes dozens — of plays.
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Most of the time yes, but i share it with friends and here on “Current sounds” thread.
Since i bought Digitakt and found this forum and Current sounds it made me produce way more music then before. It gave me a nice push to be creative and experimental on daily basis. Sometimes some songs work and it resonates with people, sometimes it doesn’t.
I am just happy to have this “silent” conversation or idea sharing with people.
I also get inspired by others daily jams or thoughts about sound.
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My wife acts visibly bored when I ask her to listen to anything longer than a minute. I self released stuff under an old project and I did get positive feedback but I don’t think my friends were actually regularly listening to it after the initial, probably incomplete, checking it out. I’ve kind of reframed my goals and I’m focusing more on trying to do live performances instead of producing recorded music that people will listen to. At least the 10 people drinking at the bar are having a good time and not checking out my music out of obligation.
It definitely doesn’t help that nobody I know in real life is into whatever the fuck you would call the music I make. Idm I guess.
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many such cases
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I still release all my music, but I tend not to do anything big or hype it much. Every year I release a new album called “Twenty 24” or “Twenty 25” that has all the music and live sets I’ve recorded for that year. If nothing else, I figure having it all released and available online is a nice safety back up.
I also try and post a lot of it to YouTube as well, since I tend to get a lot of listens there. Well for the live sets anyway, no one listens to my singles on YouTube. 
I did however remove all my music (except that released by other labels) from Spotify. Not supporting their business practice anymore.
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After a somewhat engaging start playing shows locally in my weird beat scene, little bit of exposure on blogs, and on SC then met my wife and kids around the time the music to study lofi shit started coming and kinda water down the scene and washed out all the momentum the sp forums beat scene was gaining at the time. Bunch of the community went on hiatus myself included.
While on hiatus for almost a decade I never stopped creating but never released my works, I found it strangely reassuring and would even delete my work. Felt really therapeutic to work on my craft behind the scenes, with no expectations other than happiness. I would fill up my SP-303/SP-404 cards, delete and start again.
In 2024 I showed a couple friends my creations before I was about to start my delete cycle, and they convinced me to release on BC. A couple months later my mom passed. During the Sleepless nights I would create, and vowed to recommit myself to my beloved SP-forums Beat Battles.
Since then participated in 24 battles straight, and released every single thing I make, I try to still try to capture the zen of no expectations and try not overthink things.
I have a physical tape in the works now, out of nowhere some of tracks on SC took off into over 2,000 plays, and one of reels 10k. i am sure its just the algorithms work. Feels weird and almost fake to the point where I am just trying to ignore it and operate as usual.
Never listened or enjoyed my music more than i do now.
Long story short IMO make music for you and dont care want anyone else thinks about is one of the best way to get peeps to eventually listen when your ready to release!
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With these kinds of threads, I’m always reminded of this meme.
But, yeah, I’ve found that it’s best to just make art for art’s sake. Put it out there, sometimes someone will appreciate it, but that shouldn’t be the main goal unless you are trying to make a living doing it and then it’s less art, because it’s a product, so you have to care what others think.
Also, shout out to @Sleepynumb ‘s upcoming tape. That’s art I appreciate!
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I put stuff on Youtube mostly as a way to feel like playing with hardware is worth it, and partly as a kind of resumé to share with other musicians I meet.
It’s neat to be able to quantify it in a way. I don’t think I’m amazing but I like making sounds and weird, silly, dancey video game sounding music.
To see that anything I’ve recorded has anyone remotely into it is nice.
The best times are when I’m just noodling at my desk getting lost in ambient reverb land, but when I finally snap out of it and turn around a family member is relaxing on the nearby sofa.
That’s actually super rewarding.
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no, but I am the only one that listens to it all day and all night
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I love the flying fuck expression.
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Nah, I’m only an Electronic music forum reader.
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If I don’t listen to my own music, how will it ever be heard?
I’m sure this video has been posted elsewhere on this forum, but I’ll post it anyway because Mylar Melodies does a great job of expressing where I am on this issue at this point in my life:
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I only listen to my music when I am drunk, everything else I use yt-dlp and rip low quality mp3s and transfer them onto my android device.
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One of my favorite stages, which I’m in right now with a set, is committing draft mixes to files I can listen to in my car, late at night, early in the morning. Take notes on best and worst moments, tweak, export again. I share it to YouTube and here as a way to tell myself it’s finished, but the listening times are easily the best, each time it’s fresh, and a little better…
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No, I did the promo thing and got picked up by a few blogs last decade. My stuff is out there to be found on YT and SC. I now only focus on YT. I mostly do beat battle type things, which then end up in a monthly show on another forum.
It’s not a big deal, but it’s nice to know I can brighten someone else’s day with my music sometimes.
Also, my girlfriend really digs my music. Like, if she’s faking it she’s really good. She’s intrigued by my process though having been there for a bit of it now I think that was a bit of a letdown for her. I think she had in her head that I get all these crazy ideas right on the first try, and we all know that’s not the case. I can cut down the trial and error a bit, but there’s still a lot of listening to the same 30 seconds of music over and over to get things right.
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I like this post a lot. I can identify with this. It’s a very nice stage. Almost finished. The heavy lifting done. Just a few more tweaks to go. I like to listen in the car, on the home stereo, on earbuds, etc. So satisfying when you get things to sound decent on all your “listening devices”, for lack of a better term.
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My two ex band mates from the band where we understood each other best both listen and enjoy my tracks. My girlfriend tells me there’s one she likes better than the others and is politely supportive. Another friend who is also doing the “former metal band guy with a career makes electronic music for fun now” thing likes my music. Otherwise I would be surprised if anyone else I knew had even listened to it. I felt weird advertising it on my normal social media so I made a dedicated instagram. I do have roughly as many listens on Bandcamp in the last several months as a ten year old full length from a band I used to be in that had FOUR members where none of our friends cared so maybe I’ve become more likable in the subsequent years or that bands music was just that bad. That one getting no listens at all was slightly more of a bummer tbh because at the time I was a more social person with lots of “buddies” and the other band I was in was quite popular but I had already realized most people aren’t really interested in your actual art/personal expression beyond thinking it’s cool that you do that. Now I don’t worry about it at all and can be as self indulgent or uninteresting as I want.
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This is beautiful, I really hope I can pull this off one day! Thanks for sharing the story.
Would you mind telling us more about that song? Is it a “classic” lullaby or a techno banger 
?
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